Macaronic. What a great word! Is it perhaps the word behind the Yankee Doodle Dandy song - stuck a feather in his cap and called it Macaroni? It makes sense there (while pasta does not) as the feather is a jaunty flaunt at grandeur in a rag-tag bunch. ?!
This is one of my favorite poems--thank you, as always, for your writing. For what it's worth, my favorite successor in the "Timor Mortis tradition" (though lacking the macaronic element) is Wordsworth's "Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg."
I just remembered its Belloc’s ‘caritas non conturbat me’ that was echoing in my mind when I read the poem. I don’t remember the refrain I remember Belloc’s distortion of it.
Macaronic. What a great word! Is it perhaps the word behind the Yankee Doodle Dandy song - stuck a feather in his cap and called it Macaroni? It makes sense there (while pasta does not) as the feather is a jaunty flaunt at grandeur in a rag-tag bunch. ?!
Momento Mori:
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/m/memento-mori
Here is a relatively recent example, Hilaire Belloc's "Heretics All":
Heretics all, whoever you may be,
In Tarbes or Nimes, or over the sea,
You never shall have good words from me.
Caritas non conturbat me.
But Catholic men that live upon wine
Are deep in the water, and frank, and fine;
Wherever I travel I find it so,
Benedicamus Domino.
On childing women that are forlorn,
And men that sweat in nothing but scorn:
That is on all that ever were born,
Miserere Domine.
To my poor self on my deathbed,
And all my dear companions dead,
Because of the love that I bore them,
Dona Eis Requiem.
Typographically this is supposed to be in 4-line stanzas with the 4th line of each stanza indented and italicized.
This is one of my favorite poems--thank you, as always, for your writing. For what it's worth, my favorite successor in the "Timor Mortis tradition" (though lacking the macaronic element) is Wordsworth's "Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg."
For some reason, I think I know the refrain, but I don’t remember this poem. This column is a daily joy.
I just remembered its Belloc’s ‘caritas non conturbat me’ that was echoing in my mind when I read the poem. I don’t remember the refrain I remember Belloc’s distortion of it.